I was born in Brooklyn (like everybody), but I served in the Israeli army; my first reserve duty was the Six-Day War. My father was a Palestinian--born in Poland, emigrated to Palestine when he was three years old, in 1920. I inherited a deep love of Israel from him. I hate the stream of lies I read and hear daily about Israel. I love Israel's people--all of them.
[Contact me: joel dot orr at gmail dot com]

Mark Steyn in the Canadian National Post writes with his usual lucidity about the British press's clearly anti-Semitic bias, and more general reflections on the situation. Blessings on your head, Mark!

Thursday, April 18, 2002

I think I have "arrived" as a blogger; someone linked to this site and characterized it as "partisan." I am glad they noticed!

I AM partisan. I am a Zionist who loves Israel, loves America, loves people. I believe there are absolutes--good and evil, in particular. And I am for good, and against evil (in case you were wondering).

I am not a reporter, in this context; I am a seeker of truth about Israel and an encourager of the good. I believe in God, and I believe He is Jewish.

I believe in unalienable rights - rights that, if denied, make a person less than human. I believe those are the rights to life, liberty, and property.

Tal G. in Jerusalem "Arab spokesmen who criticize the way the IDF conducted its campaign in Jenin are breathtakingly hypocritical. How can they preach to Israel that it must put its soldiers at risk to protect Palestinian civilians while at the same time praising and egging on their heroic Jihad bombers?"

I am attending the Israel Venture Association annual conference in Tel Aviv and was introduced to Andrea Koppel from CNN as we were waiting for Prime Minister Sharon and Secretary of State Powell to finish their discussion Sunday evening at our hotel.

While we were chatting, an American-born Israeli joined
us to tell Andrea about his perception of media distortion
in that the press that stresses moral equivalence between
Israeli civilian deaths caused by Palestinian terror and
Palestinian civilian deaths caused by Israeli military
actions. He argued that Israel has tried to engage in a
peace process since Camp David and has been double-crossed over and over by the Palestinian Authority. Further,
he argued the civilian deaths caused by Palestinians are intentional, whereas the deaths caused by Israel are mostly the tragic, unintentional results caused by Israel trying to defend itself.

Andrea replied, "So when Israeli soldiers slaughter civilians
in Jenin, that is not equivalent?"

Israeli: "What are your sources? Were you in Jenin? How exactly do you know there was a slaughter?"

Andrea: "I just spoke with my colleagues who were there, and they told me of the slaughter."

Israeli: "Did they actually see the shooting, the bodies?"

Andrea: "Palestinians told us about the slaughter."

Israeli: "And you believe them without evidence. Could they
possibly be lying and distorting facts?"

Andrea: "Oh, so now they are all just lying??" [sic]

The Israeli became emotional in describing that his children are afraid, his friends have been murdered, and if this goes on, "We could lose our lives or we could lose our country."

Andrea, "Yes, you will lose your country."

At this point, I interrupted the two of them and asked Andrea Koppel, "Did I just hear you correctly-- that you believe the current crisis will lead to the destruction of the State of Israel?"

Andrea: "Yes, I believe we are now seeing the beginning of the end of Israel."

Wednesday, April 17, 2002

A thoughtful--and distressing--analysis of the present state of affairs in Israel. My take: The full extent of the evil of the UN (names are often so revealing; this acronym is essential negation--of life, of God, of truth) has yet to be acknowledged. It will manifest more and more, I sadly predict.

In this transcription of a brief radio report, you can read the remarks made by the father and mother of Shmuel Weiss, IDF medic, killed in the Jenin battle a couple of days ago. Among the many powerful points she makes, Mrs. Weiss tells of her "revenge" on the Holocaust.

This article tells about two suspected terrorists being arrested in Issawiya, an Arab village in Jerusalem. The untold part of the story came in an email from my friend (since our IDF - Nachal - days, 35 years ago) Shmulik, whose home is very near to Issawiya:

In a message dated 4/17/02 4:20:19 AM, shmuel@macam.ac.il writes:

Here is a first-hand story that CNN will not show:

The Arab village near us was put on a curfew last night because the Army was looking for terrorists who stayed there while planning an attack today--our Independence Day.

So there were many people who could not get home who stayed at the entrance of the village. People from the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem came and gave them food and drinks, and I heard that some offered Arabs to come and spend the night at their houses.

Curious as to what the Arab press is saying about Israel and the Jews? (These are based on good translations, or Arab publications that appear in English. If you doubt that, verify it with an Arabic-speaker.)

No link on this item. I just visited the news sites of CNN, MSNBC, and ABC. Any mention of yesterday's rally in DC, if there was any, has been expunged. This is "balanced reporting": A significant fraction of the US population dropped everything and went to DC to make a statement. But if you watch the news over the Internet, you'd never know it happened.

You must read this piece on the UN Human Rights Commission (what do you call a multiple oxymoron?) on their decision to condone violence as a way to achieve Palestinian statehood on Meryl Yourish's blog. Thank you, Meryl!

Israel Marks 54th Day of Remembrance for 21,182 servicemen, police and civilians killed in war and murdered by terrorists from 1948 until 2002.

How many of you did I know? Which of you did I sit next to on Eged buses from Ra'anana to Rosh HaNikra, from Grofit to Gonen?

Ami Goren, of Geva, my childhood friend, died in 1967; Benny Katzin, best man at my wedding, perished in 1973. Tsvika Malkieli, my classmate--1967. Yuyu Nir of Geva - I must stop, lest I remove the cover from the endless fountain of tears that threatens to burst forth on the slightest allusion, a fragment of a song--"HaReut"; "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav"; "Mi SheHalakh".

And now the Internet has made you all more intimately part of me--Shalhevet Pass; Binyamin and Talia Kahane; ...I have your faces on my screensaver. I pray for the comfort of all the bereaved. I don't think about 21,182 deaths; I focus on one at a time, and on those who miss them.

G-d of Israel, help me to live in such a way that the meaning of these deaths, so dear to You (Psalm 116:15), will not be diminished.

For days, the Israeli press has been warning that the "Palestinians" will not allow bodies to be removed from the streets in Jenin and other towns, because they intend to produce the appearance of an atrocity. Now the campaign has begun.

IT IS FALSE. DO NOT BELIEVE IT!

Such a thing could not be kept secret for a moment in Israel. Professor Kenneth Preiss of Ben Gurion University sent this letter to several newspapers, and encourages all to do something similiar to their local and national press:

"Please inform the reporters trying to figure out if the Israeli army is trying to "hide" a "massacre" of Palestinians, that Israel's citizen army includes journalists, members of parliament, professors, doctors, human rights activists, members of every political party, and every other kind of person, all within sight and cell phone distance of home and editorial offices. Thousands of people at the home front know exactly what is going on in the war long before they hear it on the radio or see it on TV because they have been updated by enlisted friends and family with cell phones.

"Massacre" means willful murder of harmless civilians. Had a massacre occurred the personal public grapevine would have been inundated with information about it, within hours. The talk of "massacre" is yet another malicious canard."